


Fuck you. Fuck your Inquisition. And double fuck your Maker.

by FulgrimOfTheThird



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-14 23:49:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21244034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FulgrimOfTheThird/pseuds/FulgrimOfTheThird
Summary: Eldyra has finally had enough with these shems and their stupid Inquisition and being 'not a hostage'.





	Fuck you. Fuck your Inquisition. And double fuck your Maker.

Eldyra woke up slowly with a groan. She recognised the feeling of shackles about her wrists and the touch of cold stones beneath her knees. She let out a sigh. She presumed she'd been caught by some human guard and thrown in prison for spying. She guessed she'd been beaten since her body ached and her head pounded. Probably why she couldn't remember being captured and tossed in here. She opened her eyes and looked about, surprised to see a ring of guards with swords drawn. Well that was new. A flash of green pulled her eyes down to her hand where some sort of mark was emitting the strange light. She looked up as she heard the door open and saw two women walk in. Both looked dangerous for different reasons and the elven warrior set her scarred face to a blank intensity. The first questions were met with silence until the warrior woman leaned in and grabbed her arm, "Explain this."

Eldyra pulled her arm away and snarled like a feral dog, "I can't. And what's it to you anyway?" Her voice was harsh as though even her vocal cords were scarred. "Or is this the human tradition of locking up everything you don't understand? Or do you honestly think I killed everyone up there? Do you see blood on my sword? I'm sure you've locked that up somewhere, unless someone decided they wanted a genuine elven blade." Cassandra made a noise of disgust and made to strike her but the other woman stepped in and caught her hand. 

"We need her, Cassandra." She let go and stepped back before turning to their captive elf. "Do you remember anything? How this all started?" 

Eldyra spat before answering, "Good human, bad human is it? Fuck you but if you must know I remember running and then some shiny woman or something. Then here I am locked up in prison with zero evidence against me."

The two women shared a look before Cassandra spoke up, "Go to the forward camp Leliana, I will take her to the rift." Leliana nodded and left quickly. 

Eldyra remained silent until Cassandra pulled her to her feet and shoved her forwards out the door. The elf winced and tried to raise a shackled hand to shield her eyes as bright sunlight stabbed into them. She realised something wasn't right when she noticed the sunlight was heavily tinted green. That was new. She lowered her hand and noticed a massive tear in the sky, pulsing and spitting energy through the clouds. "Oh fuck me." 

"We call it the Breach. It is a rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It's not the only such rift but it is the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the chantry."

"An explosion can do that?" Eldyra scoffed. This was some shem nonsense if she'd ever heard it. She had nothing to do with that thing and she wanted nothing to with it either. 

"This one did. Unless we act, the Breach may expand until it swallows the world." Cassandra went on. Right then the Breach flared with an extra bright pulse of light that sent a corresponding flare of light and agony up Eldyra's arm. She fell to the floor, cursing as the pain faded. “Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… and it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this but there isn’t much time.”

Eldyra swore once more and spat to the side. "I guess I don't have a choice in the fucking matter." She snarled and picked herself off the floor, shaking off Cassandra's helping hand.

"None of us have a choice." The shem replied with clear disapproval in her voice. Apprently she seemed to think the woman still in shackles in front of her should have been bouncing up and down to volunteer to throw one unknown thing at another unknown thing and hope it fixed the problem. Eldyra wanted to headbutt the woman. They walked through the small town towards the gates. Villagers, priests and soldiers were scowling and muttering as she passed them. She returned their attention with snarls of her own, for all the world looking like the savage elf they imagined her to be. A few flinched back when she gnashed her teeth at them. “They have decided your guilt. They need it. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry. The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together. Now, they are dead.”

"Well they can go fuck themselves. I was there because your stupid fucking chantry fucked things up, kept fucking them up and we had to see how your next fuck up was going to effect us." She spat at a particularly judgey looking priest and side eyed the soldiers who opened the gates for them. 

"We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves, as she did. Until the breach is sealed.” Cassandra went on, either unaware or ignoring what her prisoner was doing. She turned around and released the shackles from her wrists. "There will be a trial. I can promise no more than that."

Eldyra scoffed as she rubbed her wrists. "Oh the justice of shems. Shall I just hang myself for you now?" She held out a scarred and calloused hand, "Give me my sword." The demand was not gentle. "You want me to charge at a demon hole, give me my sword." Cassandra just looked at her with barely disguised loathing. 

"You are still a prisoner and I will fight anything that blocks our way." Her tone brooked no argument and she began to walk away. 

"Fine. But if I die on your head be it. Also fuck you." 

They walked in silence from then, Eldyra glowering ahead while Cassandra kept a cold eye on her prisoner. Clearly this elf wasn't a star conversationalist or even particularly friendly. But they needed her mark so the bearer of it had to be tolerated. They paused only once when the Breach pulsed again and sent more staggering pain into the elf's arm. Eventually they came upon one of the many bridges that crossed the ravines and valleys in these mountains. They were halfway across when one of the projectiles from the Breach careened through the bridge, causing it to buckle and collapse sending Cassandra and Eldyra spilling to the ice below. A demon pulled itself from the ice in front of them and Cassandra moved to meet it with her sword. Another glow announced another demon coming up behind Cassandra and Eldyra. She looked about for a weapon and saw a two handed sword in the grasp of an injured soldier also sent spilling by the bridge's collapse. "Thanks, I need this." She muttered as she took the weapon and turned on the beast coming towards her. She swung the sword in a wide arc, slicing into flesh that gave less resistance than she was used to. A solid thrust finished it off just as Cassandra finished hers. She towards Eldyra with her sword raised. 

"Drop your weapon." She demanded. 

"Fuck you." Eldyra spat. "Want me to just sit down and let the demons kill me?" She kept her own sword raised, ready to fight if need be.

"Fine." Cassandra conceded at last, "I cannot protect you from everything."

"No shit," the elf. "Now you want to get me to this Breach or just stand here snapping at each other?"

Cassandra gave Eldyra a look that was colder than the ice around them before passing her over a few healing potions. "Here." And then they were walking again. 

A few more encounters with demons and they had reached some ruins where a small rift was casting a sickly green light over the group fighting in front of it. Some soldiers were standing with what looking to an elven mage and a dwarven archer. She rushed in, happy for another chance to kill something. When the last demon was slain the mage grabbed her marked arm and held it up towards the rift. Her arm thrummed and vibrated before giving off a flash of its own and the rift was gone. She lowered the fist she had been about to punch the mage with as she stared at the mark on her hand. "Guess it does work then." She huffed. 

“Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake – and it seems I was correct.” The mage explained. taking a step back from the anger glare of the warrior he'd grabbed. 

"Meaning it could also close the Breach itself." Cassandra added.

"Possibly." the mage gave a slight nod of his head, "It seems you hold the key to all our salvation."

"Good to know!" The dwarf piped up, "And here I thought we'd be ass deep in demons forever. Varric Tethras. Rogue, storyteller and occasional unwelcome tag a long."

"Nice to meet you I guess," Eldyra grunted, "Least you aren't trying to either feed me to demons or hold me prisoner." She shot a glare at Cassandra. 

“Absolutely not. Your help is appreciated, Varric, but…” Cassandra began to interject. 

“Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker? Your soldiers aren’t in control anymore. You need me.” the dwarf shot back, earning a disgusted noise from Cassandra. 

"I am Solas if there are to be introductions." The mage added, keeping a calm look depite the obvious tension. "I am pleased to see you still live."

“He means, ‘I kept that mark from killing you while you slept.'” Varric added. 

"Well then thank you." She looked at the mark and then to Solas. "So you know about this mark?"

"My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade, far beyond the experience of any Circle mage. I came to offer whatever help I can give with the Breach. If it is not closed, we are all doomed regardless of origin.” Solas replied with a nod of his head.

"Right, I am going to have a long talk with you later." She pulled a helmet from a nearby corpse and pushed it onto her head. She vaulted a low wall and made her way along the path that lay beyond. 

A few more fights with isolated pockets of demons brought them to another guarded gate. A rift sat in front of this one that glowed and spat out a wave of demons as they approached. Eldyra was spattered with demon blood at this point She waded into the fray without hesitation, adding more spatters of blood to her armour with glee. Once again she sealed it and they moved on beyond. This was shitty and Eldyra had no inclination to stick around for long. She recognised Leliana ahead and walked over to her, not paying attention to the man next to her. She had a habit of ignoring any sort of priests, especially ones that spoke to her. He sounded angry and annoyed but she let it all wash over her without taking in a single word he said. When it was clear nothing of import was being said she simply began walking again, heading towards the temple ruins. "We going to do something about this Breach thing or are you going to stand around shitting your britches and whining?" She turned around and began walking away. The rest simply shrugged and began to follow after her. 

Another rift stood in their way, more soldiers trying to contain the demons that spilled forth. Eldyra joined the fray once more, sword a gleaming arc as it sang through the air. New types of demons leaped at her and the elf cut them down too, swearing and snarling the whole time. For the third in the last two hours she sealed the rift and prepared to move on. She saw a man in heavy armour approaching her. She held a hand up to stop anything he had to say. "Yeah, whatever. Let's just do this shit." And she kept on walking, leaving the man to stand there flapping his lips like a landed fish. Cassandra gave him an apologetic look as she jogged to keep up with the elf. 

Eldyra had made it into the temple ruins and paused by what used to a banister. The Breach was much higher than she thought it was. "Better hope this mark thing can reach that high," she remarked before moving onward, finding a way down. Weird jagged spires of glowing rock jutted outwards like claws trying to grip the earth from beneath. A voice began to ring out over the stillness. "Great, and now the air is speaking. The sooner I'm out of here the better." She was sure the others were saying something but the pounding blood in her ears blocked it out. She was confident there was at least one ruptured blood vessel from all this nonsense.

She jumped off a short ledge and paused as some sort of vision appeared in the air above them. It seemed to show the Divine suspended in mid-air while someone else, represented by a simple pair of glowing eyes, seemed about to sacrifice her. Eldyra then showed up, having heard the noise and hoping for a fight, giving the Divine enough time to knock an orb from the figure's hand. Instinctively the elf had picked it up and the damn thing had burned the mark into her hand. The vision disappeared in a flash of greenish light. Eldyra turned her gaze on Cassandra and spat. "Fucking told you so." Then she was moving forward towards the rift. She would have to open it first, kill off whatever came through and then close it again. Of course it wasn't simple. She thrust her marked hand towards the rift, willing the rift to open up. With a flash it did rip open and a gigantic demon sprang forth. It towered over the assembled soldiers, spiked armour plating covering huge muscles. 

"Now!" Cassandra called and arrows flew at the demon. Eldyra was already sprinting at it, the prospect of the fight gripping her mind fully. She raised her sword high and swung it hard into the thing's leg. The blade rang off the armouring and she cursed. She noticed a faint light seemingly connecting the demon to the rift. She thrust her hand out, hoping that she could disrupt that connection and maybe open up the demon to her blows. Another flash of light and the beast falling to a knee seemed to indicate success. Eldyra took full advantage and began to swing her sword in frenzied arcs, slicing into the thing's face. She thrust hard forward, spearing her borrowed sword into its face. It roared and stood up, taking the stubborn and half crazed elf with it. Eldyra scrambled up, hooking her legs about a spur of armour and retrieving her sword. She stabbed repeatedly downwards, demonic blood spurted upwards, soaking the elven warrior in black. Eventually it managed to throw her off and she landed hard on her side, sword still clutched in her hand. The faint glow was back and so she thrust out her hand towards the rift once more. More demons sprang out but Eldyra dispatched them with powerful strokes of her sword before leaping forward like a rabid mabari to plunge her sword into the bigger demon that still kept throwing lightning and fists around the place. She disrupted the rift again, once more causing it to fall to its knees and she ended its life with a solid thrust into its throat when it had fallen into range. There was no time to celebrate as she threw her hand forwards once more, feeling the power behind the Breach as she fought to close it. It gave a massive thunderclap as it finally sealed, the force of it sending Eldyra back. She struck her head hard and blackness claimed her mind once again. 

Once she awoke she half expected to feel shackles and stone again. Instead she was laying on a comfortable bed in a sturdy wooden cabin. A clatter pulled her attention to a younger elf in the room. They'd dropped a wooden box and were now prostrating themselves on the floor. "Stand the fuck up. I'm not someone to be bowed to. Get up. Elves shouldn't kneel." She rose to her feet herself and rubbed her forehead and eyes. The other elf had shakily pulled themselves to their feet and were looking anxiously at her. "Where am I and what happened?" 

"T.they say you s.sealed the Breach." The young elf replied, "You're in Haven my lady." 

"Don't fucking call me my lady. I am Eldyra, call me that." She snapped, the pounding in her head making her more disagreeable than normal. She took a deep breath then walked over to the other elf and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Forgive me, pain is making me impolite. You deserve better than to be treated so and you deserve more than being a servant. Now, where is that bitch Cassandra?"

The younger elf seemed to relax a little bit but were still clearly overwhelmed. "Lady Cassandra is in the chantry at the top of the hill. They said they wished to speak with you when you got up." They seemed about to flee but Eldyra stayed them. "Stay in here. I'll go." She moved over to a chest she saw by the wall and found some suitable armour. She recognised it as coming from the Avaar to the North, Stone Bear she thought. She threw it on, found that her sword had been returned to her and strapped it to her back. "Right, let's go tender my resignation." She gave a smirk and opened the door. Her face fell and a scowl tore across her face. There were soldiers outside her door and forming a corridor leading further into the town. Townsfolk pressed up behind them as though trying to catch a glimpse of her. Her scowl deepened and her fingers twitched as though wanting to hold her sword in them. Instead she stalked forwards, eyes hard and right ahead, looking for all the world like the feral elf of chantry nightmare. She followed the human corridor to the doors of the chantry and shoved them aside, striding into the stone building. She paused then, glancing about and not seeing anyone of importance. Then her ears caught the sound of arguing from the far end of the hall. She marched towards it and shoved the door aside to reveal the priest from the bridge earlier arguing with Cassandra, Leliana, the soldier from the attack and a finely dressed woman. The priest immediately ordered her arrest and before the soldiers could move she'd drawn her sword and was ready to attack. 

"Cancel that order and leave us." Cassandra ordered, though no doubt she would have preferred the elf in chains. The soldiers left and the priest began fuming about something or other. Eldyra wasn't listening at all, she never did when priests opened their mouths. Cassandra pulled an ancient bound book from somewhere and threw it on the table, jabbing her finger at it. Eldyra caught the tail end of what she was saying, something about forming an Inquisition. Eldyra didn't like the sound of that, it smacked of chantry and other shem bull shit. The priest left and Cassandra introduced Commander Cullen and Amassador Josephine Montilyet. She formed an instinctive dislike of the commander but actually smiled when Josephine made the effort to greet her in elfish. 

"Impressive titles but I don't think I'll need to remember them. I'm leaving. Your Breach is shut and I am leaving." Eldyra declared, ignoring the horrified looks forming on the faces of those in the room with her. "You've seen proof of my innocence, combined with the fact I do not answer to chantry law. I am leaving." 

"But you cannot leave, there are still rifts out there and we need your mark to seal them." Cassandra replied, her hand falling to the hilt of her sword. Eldyra realised she was still holding hers and sheathed it. While it would be fun to fight her way free of this organisation she would rather not have to. "You cannot just abandon these people to the depredations of demons."

"I'm sure you'll think of something. Unless you're going to arrest me and just cart me out like point me at rifts like some sort of magic stick." Her voice was hard and the scars on her face seemed to crease with anger. She turned on her heel and left the building. She took a left and found Solas stood outside a hut. "Solas, right?" she called out to him, "I need to have a word with you." She physically took him by the arm and steered him into the hut and then into a chair. She took the chair opposite him and began to interrogate him on everything he'd learned about the mark and its effects. 

About two hours later she left the hut and headed towards the forge. She paused at the merchant who was set up near the gates to purchase a few supplies before continuing on her way. She came to the forge and took an axe from a rack of fresh forged weapons. She ignored Harrit, waving him away as she moved to an anvil and laid her arm on it. Harrit tried to step in and pull her away but she headbutted him hard and snarled at anyone else who made a move towards her. She placed her arm back on the anvil then raised the axe high and brought it down hard just below the elbow. It took a second strike to full sever her marked arm but it came free in a spray of blood and a feral scream of pain. She dropped the axe to the floor and plunged the stump into the coals of a furnace nearby, chewing on elfroot and blood lotus to numb the pain. A medic came running in, sent for when someone realised what the elf was going to do. They stopped the bleeding and bandaged it tight, frowning and admonishing Eldyra the whole time. She ignored it all, waiting for the medic to be done before scooping up her severed arm. She placed it on her lap as she clumsily tied down all but one finger with a spare bandage. She left the middle finger up in the time honoured, cross-species gesture of scorn before taking it back to the chantry. She entered the war room once more to find that Cassandra was indeed arguing for her to be placed under guard while Josephine was saying it would make the Inquisition look too bad and noone would work with them. Their arguing ceased when Eldyra walked in. "You need the mark? Here, you can have it." She tossed the severed arm onto the table and walked out, accompanied by the screams of the ambassador and the outraged cries of Cassandra. She was smiling as she walked on out of Haven, heading back to her clan and leaving the shem nonsense far behind her. 


End file.
